Ditek Blog

Over the years, fire alarm systems have saved countless lives in addition to protecting billions of dollars of property, equipment, and businesses of all types. High quality alarm systems have evolved to make use of sophisticated sensors, notification devices, and communication systems. They can now accurately detect fire conditions, interface with related systems such as fire doors, and alert not only building occupants, but also management, remote locations, monitoring companies, and nearby public authorities.

For residential property managers, there are only a few vital factors: rent to quiet, reliable tenants, collect the rent on time, and control expenses – particularly large, unexpected expenses. One large, unexpected expense that has caught many property managers off guard is the result of an electrical surge event, and the subsequent need to not only replace the fire alarm panel (the panel and wire may be covered by insurance, but the replacement labor often isn’t), but to also pay for a costly fire watch until the parts can be procured, installed, and re-inspected by fire marshals.

You would never come to work one day and start telling all your customers to go buy their coffee somewhere else. You would never just turn off your lottery machines and stop selling tickets for any reason. You rely on these systems to drive your revenue.

Convenience stores, truck stops, and similar businesses depend on many electrical and electronic devices, including video surveillance and security, AC power devices, point-of-sale (POS) terminals, lottery terminals, pay-at-pump machinery, and more. These devices are all at risk of damage caused by electrical surges – not only from the large, noticeable surges, but also from the many smaller surges that normally pass by unnoticed. Large surges caused by nearby lightning strikes and other dramatic events are an obvious hazard, but even the smaller daily surges have a cumulative damaging effect that can decrease device reliability and shorten equipment life. This is a particular concern for convenience store operations because electrical devices are usually installed both indoors and outdoors.

When a concerned mother came to her daughter’s school to review surveillance video that would confirm or dispel her fears about whether her daughter might have been harmed at school, she was told the video had been deleted in a “freak accident” according to a news story in Delaware Online. School staff reported that there had been a power surge in the days just after the alleged incident that wiped data from the hard drive of the school’s surveillance system. Months later, even after enlisting the help of the security company that had sold the system to the school, officials were still unable to produce the video or determine if it would ever be possible to do so.

Without a doubt, cybersecurity is one of the most serious threats to businesses and other organizations today. We have all seen news stories about hackers breaking into otherwise secure networks, taking over organizations’ servers and threatening to destroy their data unless a ransom is paid, or the mass theft of personal information from banks, social outlets and even the government.

Customers hire you not only to get a job done, but also for your technology expertise and experience. The relationship is no different from that of a doctor and patient, or a pilot and their passengers. They place their confidence in you to do the job the way it should be done, to deliver quality and value, and to make the right suggestions to ensure they get the best possible results from their investment.

When building a successful organization, protecting it from risk, liability, and other costly problems is essential. One of the most fundamental elements of this protection is to prevent the loss of revenue due to downtime on critical business systems. Maintaining consistent operation of these systems helps ensure that your organization can keep running smoothly, and that you do not incur unnecessary costs. To accomplish this, installing surge protection should be a mandatory part of your proactive planning.

Preventative measures help people protect themselves from future harm in many ways. Doctors can provide vaccinations against future illness, for example, and auto mechanics can perform regular maintenance to ensure that your car does not suffer a major breakdown. We recognize that spending a modest amount of time and money to perform preventative procedures can stop much larger problems and costs from occurring in the future.

The internet has created many benefits for today’s businesses. One of the most important is the advent of Internet-capable devices. The Internet of Things (IoT) brings many capabilities to businesses, including fast communication between devices, integrated usage, and optimized operations. These benefits can also be achieved for networked security, access control and other electronic systems. However, with this network comes new dangers to your operations, and some of those dangers are caused by power surges.

The information age has led to an astonishing number of innovations, including the Internet of Things — a growing trend affecting the day-to-day operations of a multitude of systems including surveillance, security and even systems like refrigeration and telephones. However, the growing trend of IoT devices means a concurrent growth in devices utilizing Power over Ethernet (PoE) technology. While PoE generally provides simpler and more cost-effective installations for networked system devices, it also has downsides. Namely, that a more connected system means more threat from damaging power surges.